In the construction of houses, commercial buildings, and the like, various utility/plumbing pipes such as water pipes, gas pipes, drain pipes, HVAC ducts, electrical cables, telephone cables, etc., extend through the walls of the building. When exteriorly terminated, these conduits extend through insulation, between wall boards, potentially within ceiling and floor structures, and in other critical places where a dry environment is extremely important for both structural, health, and safety considerations. A hole approximating the size of the conduit is formed or cut in the wall and the conduit projects through the wall. The exteriorly exposed conduits are periodically subjected to water sources, whether from rain, snow, lawn sprinklers, vandalism, or other sources. Such water has a natural tendency to travel rearwardly on the exterior of the pipe for attempted entry into the building structure. If such water enters through the exterior building wall, it can cause substantial damage to insulation, dry wall, wood moldings, flooring, and carpeting on the interior of the building. However, typically the penetration through the wall is either not sealed to prevent water, moisture, or air penetration, or is poorly sealed with a wad of roofing tar, asphalt or the like which in a hot environment sags and, over time, provides little, if any, protection.
The importance of attempting to mitigate water entry through such wall openings has been recognized by the building industry with various recent attempts to prevent such rearward water travel. One approach utilizes caulking material applied at the interface of the conduit with lathing paper disposed immediately behind the conduit outlet. Thereafter, stucco or other exterior finish material is applied over the lathing paper to be adjacent to the exposed conduit. Over time, however, such caulking can eventually crack and break, and when this occurs, water can freely travel along the conduit surface and into the interior of the building structure.
Another common approach entails hand measuring and cutting sheet metal to create flashing for every conduit outlet at a job site. Each flashing is thereafter fitted around the respective conduit behind the wall opening and is nailed into place and caulked. Once again, although this approach can work initially, the caulking material eventually gives way or is not initially caulked properly so as to allow water to travel rearwardly over the conduit surface and into the structure.
In summary, known approaches to prevent water entry suffer from significant problems, including limited long-term effectiveness, limited operating temperature ranges, labor intensive construction and installation procedures, and unreliable moisture penetration prevention.
In view of the above described conditions and consequences of prior art solutions, a weatherproofing solution that is not subject to these shortcomings and installation errors, and that lasts the life of the building structure is needed. Accordingly, a primary object of this invention is to provide a conduit flash device that prevents rearward water flow over the exterior surface of the conduit and into the interior of a building.
Another object of this invention is to provide such a flashing device that accommodates a range of conduit sizes and shapes while not losing effectiveness.
Yet another object of this invention is to provide a flashing device whose structure is integrateable with and securable to exterior wall construction material.
These and other objects of this invention will become apparent throughout the description thereof which now follows.